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Postal transformation: Postmen open the door to a new era of consumer services

Invest in the delivery workforce and drive revenue and postal transformation

Overview

Diversification is the new mantra of postal organizations looking for additional sources of revenue to overcome the decline in mail volume and carry on their postal transformation journey. With a workforce that already visits citizens and businesses almost every day of the week, the potential business driven by “Postal proximity services”, such as installing home equipment or visiting isolated or elderly people, is getting more and more attention all around the postal world. Accenture estimates that the potential market for these new proximity services worldwide could reach US$10 billion in the next four years based on current workforce levels alone—helping to accelerate postal players’ progress on the journey to postal transformation.

Background

Facing decreases in mail revenue, postal organizations are actively looking for additional sources of revenue to go on their postal transformation journey. Most of them have already diversified in different businesses such as banking, retail or even mobile activities. However postal and parcel organizations can still seize diversification opportunities not yet fully exploited. With their regularly scheduled service and their track record of public trust, their postal workforce is ideally placed to offer more than mail and parcels. Indeed, working on behalf of private and public third parties, they could provide additional, value-based services.

Analysis

“Postal proximity services” such as installing home equipment, visiting isolated or elderly people, collecting goods or conducting survey interviews, can help post and parcel organizations to powerfully position themselves as innovative service providers that offer and deliver services on behalf of other private and public organizations. Leading postal and parcel players across the globe have recently announced their postal transformation plan to provide proximity services. Accenture estimates that the potential market for these new proximity services worldwide could reach US$10 billion in the next four years.

Recommendations

To take their fair share of that potential US$10 billion proximity services business market, parcel and postal agencies need to carefully prepare by:

Seeking out services that offer the best value. Parcel and postal agencies need to identify not only the valuable services customers would like to get but also services for which private or public services organizations will be willing to pay.

Using technology to industrialize and reduce costs. To successfully and efficiently manage the complex ecosystem of postmen and third parties, using the right technology is essential.

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